Hey, it's Alice, your Guild International Officer 2022-2024. This is a blog about my "Officer Wins" and also a wrap up or “debrief” of my 2 years in my role. I have lots to tell you about my time as International Officer, because, as anyone who has seen my Officer updates on Instagram will know, I’ve had a very busy two years – so here we go!
Time is a slippery creature and moves quickly. It feels like the Officer Elections Results Night 2022 was just last Friday, but in fact, more than 2 years have passed since then. When I got elected that night, I had very little idea about the thing I was about to start, and as an international student with English as a non-native language, I didn't understand what did the word "guild" actually meant until after all the training. And I was very panicked. But I still feel very proud about myself at that time as I learnt so much and got to know many new people in a short period of time – some of them are my close friends now. Then I made the decision to re-run in the elections in 2023 because I wanted to continue doing some of the projects and carrying on some conversations, and to see what would happen.
The fun bits:
When I first started, someone asked me what I would like to be remembered for as an International Officer, my answer was, and remains to be, the Language Café. In the past 2 years, I’ve hosted 15 Language Cafés in total, basically every month in term-time. All the snacks were bought and transported by me, sometimes by myself, sometimes with another Guild staff or Officer. As a multilingual person, I have been enjoying doing this event, as I think this is a good social opportunity for everyone to practice language skills, to make friends and to have some free snacks with low commitment. It also helped some of the cultural societies to attract new members.
I have also hosted 10 socials including International Student Mixers, themed parties, an Easter Egg Hunt and Movie Night with the help and support of other Officers such as Ben, the Postgraduate Officer, and the Guild staff team. One of my favourite parts of hosting events is that I got to choose the music lists, sometimes I put online forms out for you to create the playlist with me.
Although I have not had experience of playing in musicals or dramas, I am very glad that people have been enjoying the Alice’s Top Tips videos and Come Dine with Me series. This has been something I really wanted to do, and I hope these have been helpful and entertaining to you. It’s very difficult to tell which one is my favourite!
The ‘serious’ bits:
When I first became an Officer, ensuring that accessible and inclusive information was being shared was one of my priorities. First of all, engagement in events had been very challenging when all the in-person activities were recovering from Covid. In my posts and Instagram stories, I always tried to include the accurate time, location of the events and the sign-up links. I also do newsletters and post on WeChat in Mandarin, and which proved popular. Another part was raising awareness of the resources at the University and at the Guild. Alongside general information on mental health and student safety, I have been working with the University on some announcements and relaying visa-related information to international students, including the Right to Work, Right to Rent and the Attendance information.
It would be surprising if anyone says that having meetings and reading papers is their dream job, but I think I secretly enjoyed this part too, especially the in-person ones where we get free food. I met so many talented and dedicated leaders and staff who care about education and students. Inevitably I was nervous, for example, in University Council meetings, seeing all those big decisions to be made and the big numbers about recruitment, finance and investments, commenting on the University’s strategies and policies. The things I usually talked about in those meetings are international students’ experience, cost of living, Birmingham International Academy and the Dubai campus.
I believe my dear friend Ben would agree, among the hundreds of meetings we’ve been to, one meeting we could both remember very clearly is the one where we tasted sandwiches, wraps and salads from different suppliers and gave them scores – we got so full at the end, well, that was before I went gluten-free. From students’ working hours to free language courses, from International Strategies to sandwiches, lots of magic happens in meetings and in the actions planned in the meetings.
National campaigns are something I am really glad that I have joined and witnessed, for example, Get Rid of the International Students’ Working Cap, Save the Graduate Route Visa and Cost of Living. Sometimes we would hear encouraging words from local politicians, sometimes it could be challenging. Through these campaigns, I have also connected with some officers in different Students’ Unions and people in different organisations, such as NUS and UKCISA.
The additional bits
As the International Officer, another part of my remit has been overseas campuses. I had the pleasure to visit our Dubai Campus and to meet with the Provost, staff, students and student leaders. That also marks my first trip to Dubai and it was during a special time, Ramadan. I also met with staff from our Joint-Institute in China.
I’ve worked closely with the University’s International Mobility Teams and the Community Safety Hub, as well as different culture-based societies and people from different countries/regions, and I have learnt so much. For example, I didn’t know that in Ukraine, ‘Easter’ is on a different date. I have done so many inductions, met with a lot of you and replied to lots of emails and messages to provide support within my capacity.
There were many other things but I would like to finish this article here otherwise it would be as long as my masters dissertation. I’d like to give a special shout-out to my two sets of Officer Teams: thank you for making the work so enjoyable every day - I will miss our time working together and our friendship will last forever!
To each of you reading this: thank you for having voted for Alice, and for coming to my events and sending kind messages all the time. I hope you enjoyed your time in Birmingham – I know I have!
Best wishes,
Tianjie Liu (Alice) - Guild International Officer 2022-2024